In the wake of last month’s “friendly fire” slaying of Police Officer Omar Edwards in Harlem, the NYPD has turned to a noted academic to reduce racial bias in the department’s practices, according to a letter made public today.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wrote Gov. Paterson to say the department has hired Joshua Correll, an assistant professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, to “assist us in examining the adequacy and appropriateness of our current training practices.”

“He will help us in devising new methods to further reduce the potential influence of racial bias in policing practices,” Kelly wrote.

“Dr. Correll has been at the forefront of important work with police departments across the country studying the presence of racial bias in a police officer’s decision to shoot and how that bias can be controlled through training,” Kelly told the governor.

Correll “examines intergroup relations, stereotyping and prejudice,” says a school web page. “He is particularly interested in the racial aspects of encounters between the police and the public.”

Edwards, who was black, was shot and killed by a white plainclothes anti-crime cop in Harlem on the evening of May 28 when Edwards confronted a suspected car thief who broke into his car.

Police Officer Andrew Dunton, who is white, was not aware that Edwards’ was a cop and fired at him when he turned toward him with a gun in his hand, police have said.

Correll would be paid for by the Police Foundation, a charity that supports NYPD initiatives, said department spokesman Paul Browne. The professor’s salary and the terms of his contract were still being worked out.

Kelly’s letter informed Paterson of a number of other initiatives the department was undertaking to reduce the likelihood of a similar “friendly fire” tragedy:

í The NYPD has requested the assistance of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (ICAP) “in gaining the expertise of law enforcement executives from around the country.”

í The NYPD has also solicited input from its own fraternal organizations, among them the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the Guardians Society, the Hispanic Society, the Latino Officers Association and the Asian Jade Society.

í Re-training the department’s officers in “confrontation situations” and developing a new training video that is now in the works for newly assigned undercover cops.

í Exploring new technology “that would be capable of minimizing the likelihood of mistaken identification incidents.”